Rule Changes Have Turned Building a Roster Into a Talent Grab

Jurgen Klinsmann was less than a year into his job as coach of the U.S. national soccer team when he decided the talent pool was on the shallow side. Not one to be constrained by national borders or passports, the German World Cup legend went for the next best thing: bringing in Americans from abroad to wear the stars and stripes in Brazil.

But Klinsmann wasn't the only one to go down that road. Thanks to rule changes over the past decade, building a World Cup squad has turned into an international talent-grab.

ENLARGE

German/U.S. dual citizen Julian Green of the U.S. men's national soccer team.
Reuters

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French-born Saphir Taider of Algeria.
Reuters

ENLARGE

Native Brazilian Diego Costa of Spain.
Associated Press

Players are no longer just born into national teams—they are recruited to them, too. Since 2007, FIFA has processed 174 association changes for male players, as of late March. Now, six players on Klinsmann's 23-man World Cup squad have represented countries other than the U.S. at youth level.

The most recent addition to Klinsmann's camp was Tampa, Fla.-born Julian Green, a product of the Bayern Munich academy. The U.S. secured his commitment to the cause in March. Like Fabian Johnson and Jermaine Jones, two other U.S. players with ties to Germany, Green is the son of an American serviceman who was stationed in Europe. Klinsmann also took Mix Diskerud, a former Norway prospect, and Aron Johannsson, who has represented Iceland. (Neither country qualified for the World Cup.)

Under the rules of soccer's world governing body, FIFA, it is perfectly legal for players to switch allegiances one time, provided they meet a couple of key criteria. The first, of course, is that they are citizens of their new countries. (In most cases, it means holding two passports at the time of their first call-up for either country.) The second is that they may not have represented their original country in a competitive game at the senior level.

In other words, you can play for a country's under-20 or under-17 team and then switch at any point, regardless of age. Even friendly (or exhibition) matches at the senior level are OK. But play in, say, a World Cup qualifier and you're anchored to that national team forever, even if you're never called up to the squad again.

The rule used to be that a player generally could change associations once up to his 21st birthday, with his allegiance set in stone after that. (The age was 18 until 2003.) But since a proposal that was approved in 2009, the age limit has been lifted.

The number of players applying for association changes jumped, according to FIFA. In 2008, it processed eight. In 2010, the number was 30.

The association behind the rule change—Algeria—should come as no surprise. Algeria is one of the world's specialists in foreign-born national team players. Of the 23 players Algeria took to the 2010 World Cup, 17 were born in France, with about half representing France at youth level. Since 2007, 12 players have switched their allegiance to Algeria, more than any other country other than Turkey.

Several other former French colonies take a similar approach. Indeed, the busiest channels for switches include France to Algeria and to Senegal.

But this solution isn't just for players who can't quite crack one national team and look for another. The path from small countries to teams with better hopes of qualifying for the World Cup is also well worn. Over the past seven years, Northern Ireland has seen seven players defect to the Republic of Ireland, which is always more likely to make major tournaments.

"It's a question of personal freedom," said Mohammed Raouraoua, the president of the Algerian Football Association who proposed the 2009 change and a member of FIFA's executive committee.

For more than a decade, he has lobbied to make it easier for immigrants and the children of immigrants to play for their host countries or their parents' and grandparents' homelands. "The flip side," he added, "is that it allows teams to raise the level of international soccer and to improve the quality of international competitions."

Things do get complicated—like if the player has yet to acquire the new citizenship at the time he wants to switch. Under those circumstances, he must also spend five consecutive years in his new country after the age of 18.

This slows down the process, but hardly makes it impossible. Just ask Spain, the defending World Cup champ.

Already stacked with soccer riches, La Roja managed to pad its ranks with Diego Costa, La Liga champion Atlético Madrid's top marksman—while keeping him out of his native Brazilian squad in the process. He qualified for Spain after spending five years there and picked up a new passport last year. His two appearances for Brazil had come in friendlies, which don't count toward establishing allegiance.

Costa's final decision to play for Spain—complete with a college-football-style letter of intent—came just as Brazil was trying to call him up for a couple more friendlies last October.

For Spain, it was a huge addition. In Brazil, it was nothing short of treason. Unlike native Brazilians who have played for other countries in the past, Costa would have been a certainty to make the starting 11—especially given the side's lack of firepower.

"He is turning his back on a dream of millions by not representing our five-time champions in a World Cup in Brazil," said Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari at the time.

Should it all pan out for Costa, despite a hamstring injury, he wouldn't even be the first Brazilian-born player to lift a major trophy for Spain. São Paulo native Marcos Senna was an important member of the Euro 2008-winning squad.

According to his new teammates, Costa wasn't expressly recruited. "He feels Spanish," Atlético Madrid forward
David Villa
said. "He's spent his whole professional career here."

Then again, no country will admit to making a policy of seeking out potentially eligible castoffs from larger national teams. "We don't have a systematic research process," Algeria's Raouraoua said. "Each case is different. Sometimes it comes from the parents, sometimes it comes from the player, sometimes the federation reaches out."

Asked whether he worried about players Algeria might lose to other countries, Raouraoua rattled off several players with Algerian roots who had played for France.

"We pride ourselves that there are players like [Karim] Benzema or [Samir] Nasri playing for the French national team. Or [Zinedine] Zidane," he said. "I think that the role that they can play on the social front, for integration and immigration, is marvelous."

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